Joe G

I actually liked McGraw when he first appeared. That was long ago, however.

Wow! 2004 - quite the thread exhumation, Randy!

Dr. Phil cancels Britney Spears show By JO PIAZZA in Los Angeles and STEPHANIE GASKELL in New York DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Monday, January 7th 2008, 4:07 PM Dr. Phil's planned sitdown Monday with Britney Spears' parents dissolved into accusations he was exploiting the troubled singer's emotional crackup. The TV shrink insisted he canceled the taping with Jamie and Lynne Spears "because the Spears situation is too intense at this time, and out of consideration to the family." A source close to Dr. Phil McGraw said it was Britney's parents who cut him off, furious he blabbed about her mental state after visiting her in the psych ward at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "As soon as Jamie realized Dr.Phil was making public statements about Britney, including assessments of her condition, he got angry," the source told Life & Style magazine. "He started making phone calls to everybody in the family, telling them not to cooperate." The show was to air Tuesday. Britney Spears was held in the hospital overnight after going berserk when ex-hubby Kevin Federline's bodyguards came to pick up her two baby boys. She was said to be stunned by Dr. Phil's visit and many of McGraw's psychiatric colleagues blasted him. McGraw - now called Dr. Shill by some critics - went on CBS' sister show "Entertainment Tonight" to defend himself. "I've been working with this family behind the scenes for a long time, longer than you can imagine," he said, refusing to apologize for trying to help. "Somebody needs to step up and get this young woman into some quality care," he said. Spears doesn't seem to be in a rush to get help: After checking out of the hospital Saturday, she was in Palm Desert, Calif., with Adnan Ghalib, a 35-year-old paparazzo whose friends and colleagues say may sell Spears out. "[Ghalib] has always played Britney's 'knight in shining armor' but there is this opportunistic side to him and he could just be in this for the big payday at the end," a friend told TMZ.com. "He's an interesting character," a former photo editor said of the "charming" Ghalib. "He knows his way around the ladies."

Eh... we're in the midst of a thunderstorm right now. It hit 60 today, and there's a flood watch for tonight. Mind you, I went cross-country skiing last Friday.

Thank you, sir! Yeah, I have difficulty wrapping my mind around the fact that one man wrote more music than a person can digest in a lifetime. And we don't even have all of what he wrote.

Will there be student recitals @ Curtis?

What's happening on Saturday? I'll be up for more music.

For myself, I was stunned to learn that this was a boy and not a girl.

BTW Shawn, if you like this, you'd probably also enjoy Brad Shepik's forays into Balkan jazz. His album from a few years back called The Well turned my head around.

I'm a fan. I saw them live a couple years ago; they put on a great show. The drummer is a hoot, and Goran Ivanovic's guitar playing is something else. Their debut CD is a good one, too. I marvel at how much material Goran assembled there. As far as catagory, the liner notes say: "Most of the music on this album has been inspired by the beautiful folkoric music of the Balkans, focusing on Macedonia, Bulgaria and Serbia."

I don't have RealPlayer installed, so I'll have to look elsewhere. But thanks Larry - if you say something is close to the level of "Pierrot Lunaire", it's something I need to check out.

Not cheap, but... Complete Sacred Cantatas

I should do that. I definitely could use some hotail. SO good for the soul.

True. That made my day! Although I wonder why they chose not to play part 2 of the head.

Randy's got a million of 'em. Another good one involves a warm summer night full of mosquitoes.

The nice thing about 2 degrees-above-zero is that when it hits, say, 13, I'm thinking hey, it's pretty nice out!

Pretty similar here - 2 degrees F right now. 52F on Sunday. Edit: although temps in the 20s would be more to my liking, I'm not really wanting the thaw. I'd rather ski in the winter for once. It's gonna be a muddy mess come Sunday.

I think I bought three ECMs this year - all of them New Series. Hard to say what I listened to the most... Bach, Beethoven, Maria Schneider, and Monday Michiru surely got heavy rotation at one time or another.

I guess from the hairband days, Cinderella/Bon Jovi would be the absolute worst. Especially since no women pulled up their shirts. As a musician, playing in the pit for a week of Barry Manilow's Copacabana The Musical was hard to, er... cope with.

Simplicity here as well: steamed broccoli and hummus in a wrap. Quite tasty, actually.

CHEERS!

I hear ya, just that I reserve such language for the likes of Marion Meadows. Thanks for the recs, though vinyl isn't an option for me. I was looking at the Gardiner stuff in a store recently - very expensive, and the cover shots of obscure ethnic folk seemed an odd choice.

Just picked up that reissue of Gould's Goldberg Variations - the one with both versions plus a radio interview. Looking forward to hearing that. Hewitt is nice but doesn't grab my attention. The last time I put on Perahia I thought.... hmmm.... Any advice for good Cantatas? Been getting interested in the chorales lately.